


I'll Be There For You

by F1DEL1US



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-17
Updated: 2017-03-17
Packaged: 2018-10-06 10:59:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10333163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/F1DEL1US/pseuds/F1DEL1US
Summary: Auston looked pissed, unimpressed, and then pissed again during his fight with Ristolainen. Why? Well, I am glad you asked...





	

**Author's Note:**

> A month ago, I'd have balked at reading hockey RPF, let alone writing it, yet here we are...
> 
> Title is taken from, wait for it...Bon Jovi's song of the same name.

Babs was  _ Pissed _ . He had the same look on his face that he had had after their abhorrent loss to the Kings. Just like that night, he hadn’t yelled at them, hadn’t screamed or told them off. In fact, the only words out of his mouth once the post-game interviews were done, were to inform them to get their asses to the rink nice and early on Monday for practice. Now, what exactly that  _ practice _ entailed, they would find out the day of. 

 

Mitch cringed when he thought of going through another bag skate like the last one, but knowing that he couldn’t do anything about that now, he sighed and went about removing his hockey gear. 

 

The locker room was quiet as everyone went about their business. There was no music playing tonight, as was the case after most of the losses. Except for the one exception at the beginning of the season, when Auston had broken the NHL rookie record . Speaking of, his eyes strayed to the teammate in question and lingered. 

 

Auston wasn’t looking at him, in fact, he looked like he wasn’t looking at much of anything at all. There was slight dejected droop to his shoulders, and Mitch  _ hated _ seeing his friend like that. Usually, Mitch would be the one who would walk over after a loss like this and pester Auston into lightening up, but he hesitated. There was a weird tension between them since the fight. 

 

“Hey, Marns, nice fighting technique there, buddy,” Mo chirped, trying to bring some levity to the locker room. “Where did you learn that one?”

 

Mitch grinned and flipped Mo off, as everyone laughed. Everyone  _ except  _ Auston.

 

\-----

 

“So...” Mitch started, because someone had to start  _ somewhere _ , and Auston wasn’t really the conversation starter in that relationship, “...that happened.”

 

Auston had been waiting for him when he had finished showering, and they had walked to the car in silence. A silence, Mitch secretly checked his watch, that had lasted for a full fifteen minutes, which, if he was being honest with himself, was an onerous feat that he had never previously achieved.  

 

His comment got a non-committal grunt from Auston. 

 

_ Thanks, Matts. Very helpful.  _

 

“Are you mad?” he went on, hoping to get a little more out of his not  _ not _ -friend than a grunt. 

 

That one didn’t even get him a vocal response, but he did notice Auston’s hands go white from how hard he was clenching the steering and took that as a non-verbal confirmation. 

 

“At me?” he asks, looking away from Auston’s hands, and firmly shoving the not-so-platonic thoughts they induced to the back of his mind. 

 

_ That _ question got him a glare.  _ Oh, boy.  _

 

“I’ll take that as a yes then,” he mumbled, looking away from him and out the window. 

 

_ Did the drive always take them this long?  _

 

A long and irritated sigh made him turn back to Auston. 

 

“I get it, okay? It wasn’t because I didn’t think you could take...”

 

“I am not mad at  _ you _ ,” Auston said, and  _ wow, that was one full sentence. _ Mitch mentally pat himself on the back for that achievement. 

 

“Then...?” he asked, frowning. “Auston, buddy, we’ve run out of yes or no questions. You’re gonna have to help me out here.”

 

Instead of answering his question, Auston parked the car and said, “We’re here.”

 

Mitch looked up and realized why the drive had felt unnaturally long. They had bypassed his apartment and went directly to Auston’s. 

 

“You know, normal people ask before kidnapping their friends?” Mitch grumbled but got out and trailed behind Auston anyway.

 

\-----

 

“I shouldn’t...” he cleared his throat, once they settled down on the sofa, or in Mitch’s case  _ threw _ himself down on it. “I shouldn’t have left you...you know.” And when Mitch still looked as confused as ever, Auston grunted and clarified. “I shouldn’t have left the fight.”

 

Mitch was silent for a second before a disbelieving laugh escaped him, “Is  _ that _ why you’ve been looking like someone stomped on your puppy?”

 

Before Auston could reply, Mitch’s laugh turned into a full on guffaw. 

 

“Your puppy...people say  _ I _ look like a puppy...and someone stomp... Get it, Matts?” he got out between his laughs and Auston groaned and hit his head against the back of the sofa, and mentally berated himself for his poor,  _ poor _ choices in life that made him end up where he was currently. 

 

“Never try to be a Comedian, Mitchy,” Auston replied, rolling his head over to make sure Mitch saw how unimpressed he was. “I wouldn’t have believed it, but you’re even more terrible at it than you are at fighting.”

 

\-----

 

“Did it hurt?” Auston asked after another few minutes of comfortable silence, in which they started playing COD.

 

And because Mitch is Mitch, he couldn’t help his response. Honestly, it would be a crime to not reply back with, “When I fell from heaven?”

 

Auston rolled his eyes, “When you fell on your ass.”

 

Mitch smiled widely at Auston’s exasperation but replied with, “No,” and at the look of disbelief shot his way, he continued, “I am a 170 pound...”

 

“163,” Auston interjects. 

 

Mitch flipped him off as he went on, “...player in the NHL. I am one big bruise _all_ the time. Protecting your honor _did_ _not_ incapacitate me, Matts.”

 

At the mention of the fight, Auston’s expression went stormy again. 

 

“I  _ really _ shouldn’t have left the fight. It’s just...I didn’t see that  _ you _ were the one fighting,” at that, he gave Mitch another pointed look, because well they’re them, and they would never stop giving each other a hard time. “I mean, can you blame me? You? Fighting someone who has 50 pounds on you? What are the chances you are  _ that _ much of an idiot!”

 

Mitch elbowed him in the side, before replying, “You  _ suck _ at apologies, Aus. Almost as badly as you suck at COD.”

 

That one shove turned into a ten minute wrestling match, their controllers lying on the floor, forgotten, and when they stopped laughing for god knows what reason, other than that they were both absolute dorks, Auston said, “I’m sorry.”

 

Mitch rolled his eyes before shoving Auston off of him and going, “Whatever. I held my own.”

 

Auston snorts, “Yeah...I can see the headlines now: Known goon Mitch Marner brings down Ristolainen... with innovative fighting techniques.”

 

That, to no one’s surprise, results in another ridiculous wrestling match.

 

\----

 

And if the next day, one of their teammates found them on the couch, asleep and cuddling, well...no one’s surprised at that either. 

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Now let me go figure out a way to unsin.


End file.
